Pundit hails 'brilliant' Arsenal for same thing he criticised 'ridiculous' Newcastle United for

Arsenal have been praised for playing Newcastle United 'at their own game' following Sunday's match at St James' Park.

Arsenal won the match 2-0 thanks to a Martin Odegaard strike and an own goal from Fabian Schar. It was only Newcastle's second home defeat of the season and head coach Eddie Howe spoke of his frustration with The Gunners' game management.

“They managed the game well from their perspective," Howe said. "They slowed it down. Lots of breaks in play, frustrating for us. Naturally, we wanted the ball in play more, especially when you’re chasing the game."

Arsenal's alleged time-wasting seemed to be in response to how Newcastle played in the reverse fixture at the Emirates Stadium which finished 0-0 back in January. The Magpies were criticised for their time-wasting in the match, something that has been a running theme this season. Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown described The Magpies as the best 'spoilers' in the Premier League given how they delay games.

Speaking after the goalless draw in January, Keown said on talkSPORT: "There was only one team really trying to play football.

"Joelinton hit the deck so many times it was ridiculous. There were one or two instances, and I'm going to get criticism for this, but if you've got a head injury, please be genuine, please only go down if you've only got a head injury, don't abuse the rule where you go down holding your head when there's nothing wrong with you and you can see on the replay that there wasn't any contact."

While Keown did praise Newcastle for their game management, he seemed more complimentary towards his former side doing the same thing at St James' Park on Sunday. After branding Joelinton 'ridiculous' for his conduct at the Emirates Stadium, Keown hailed Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka as 'brilliant' for his game management.

"Newcastle have been brilliant at game management and Arsenal did [manage the game]," Keown told talkSPORT after Arsenal's 2-0 win. "It was interesting actually because, without naming names, a lot of those Newcastle players were getting particularly angry because it sometimes takes one to know one.

"If you actually waste time, you know what someone else is doing and Xhaka I thought was brilliant in everything he did and the game management.

https://twitter.com/talkSPORT/status/1655526708689379330

"You can't win every game playing beautiful football and Jorginho said the players bought into what they needed to do and played Newcastle at their own game."